Neural Mechanisms of Neuropsychiatric Lupus
Abstract
This project is an Impact Award that has been presented for consideration for funding in the program W81XWH-18-LRP-IA, focused on understanding, preventing, and diagnosing systemic lupus erythematosus. The project is entitled “Neural mechanisms of neuropsychiatric lupus” and it will address one of the most insidious manifestations of lupus, namely the severe cognitive and emotional abnormalities displayed by individuals with lupus. The term neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE) refers to the constellation of lupus effects on the nervous system. My lab has been studying the mechanisms NPSLE for over a decade with a variety of techniques from the fields of neuroscience and immunology. In this Impact Award, I propose to study animal models of lupus with the use of multi-electrode recordings on key brain regions that are targeted by brain-reactive autoantibodies in lupus patients. Specifically, I would like to record the neural activity of the hippocampus in NPSLE mouse models. This type of study has not yet been possible in animal models, but we have miniaturized our recording devices and have expertise in this bioelectronic approach, including the analysis of large-scale neural signals. Moreover, the Feinstein Institute is undergoing a tremendous expansion in their bioelectronic efforts, which ensures that we can build state-of-art recording devices in-house. Our final conceptual goal is to isolate neural signals that represent a signature of the lupus brain that we can use, at a later time, to identify cognitively abnormal brain signals in lupus patients. It is important to note that NPSLE can be diagnosed at the onset of the disease in about a third of the patients, meaning that the brain effects in lupus have a very early start. Thus, the availability of early brain biomarkers for the diseases is most desirable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 19, 2019
- Source ID
- W81XWH1910759
Entities
People
- Patricio Huerta
Organizations
- The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
- United States Army